How to Select a Florida Nursing Home

Picking the right nursing home for your family and loved ones is one of the most important decisions you have to make for the elderly. If you have no experience with nursing homes, it can be hard to know what to look for. But there are many helpful guides available on the internet, including a checklist from the AARP, a selection guide from Medicare, and Medicare nursing home search engine.

For Florida nursing homes, the Agency for Health Care Administration offers this guide, which you can search by region. The AHCA guide ranks facilities against other facilities in each region.

Assisted living facilities, or nursing homes, provide housing, meals, personal care services, and supportive services to the elderly and disabled. In general, there are three varieties of assisted living facilities, each with their own level of care.

Skilled Nursing Facilities are facilities that provide continuous nursing supervision by licensed nurses. These facilities offer 24 hour care. At a minimum, these homes are able to provide medical, nursing, dietary, pharmacy, and activity services.

Intermediate Care Facilities are those that require at least 8 hours of nursing supervision each day. These facilities are often confused with skilled nursing facilities, but are less extensive and have less skilled nursing care. Intermediate care facilities generally serve patients who are able to move around and need less supervision and care. At a minimum, intermediate care facilities must provide medical, intermittent nursing, dietary, pharmacy, and activity services.

Skilled Nursing Facilities for Special Disabilities are homes that provide a secure environment for persons with mental disabilities. Many of these facilities have locked and secure areas where patients reside for their own protection.

Things to Ask

There are many questions to ask the representatives of an assisted living facility, including:

· Does the home accept Medicare and/or Medicaid?

· Have any health and safety violations been reported in recent state inspections?

· How much time does the staff spend with a resident each day?

· What percent of residents are affected with quality problems like bed sores?

· What is the rating of the nursing home? And how does this compare to the average score of a nursing home in Florida and across the United States?

· How close is the home to loved ones?

· What are visiting hours?

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Sebring, FL 33870
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Bartow, FL 33830
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Lake Wales, FL 33853
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